<p>I was thinking of doing medicine and becoming a general practioner. Can someone tell me more about this profession, if residency is the same as other type of specialties, what the work hours are like, and what they pay is like.</p>
<p>Also, if anyone else is thinking of become a general practioner, feel free to post here with your plans and any other advice you have for people thinking of becoming a general doctor.</p>
<p>Residency is typically 4 years, the work is fairly flexible (you can choose if you want to work 9-5 or much more), but the pay isn't as good as it used to be (still more than enough to live comfortably but not like the old days)</p>
<p>actually residency is 3 years w/ the first year as an internship. pay will depend on whether or not you work for a private practice, and HMO (i.e Kaiser), or at a hospital, thus ranging from little to handsome pay. also it is hard to judge the hours you'd work b/c it depends on where you work. you might have to be on-call or might work at two different places during the day, etc. at the pediatrician's office i work at, the docs there work both 7-5 at the private practice as well as make rounds at the hospital either b4 or after the shift. so it all depends.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. So if I'm understanding both of you correctly, the path to becoming a general doctor and being a general doctor itself is much less strenuous than say, a surgeon or something?</p>
<p>I would agree with that</p>
<p>What do you mean by a "general doctor"?</p>
<p>I think he meant general practioner</p>
<p>Yes, general practioner.</p>
<p>Well, there's really no such thing anymore. Strictly speaking, you can finish med school and do a 1 year internship which would make you eligible for your state licensure. But the reality is, you wouldn't know jack. You'd be scared to death and way underqualified.
Internists do a full 3 (sometimes 4) year Residency in Internal Med after med school (and they then are Internists) just as Family Practitioners do a 3 year Residency in FP. The same is true for Pediatrics. None of these lower level specialists would want to be referred to or confused with the GPs of the past.</p>
<p>Just curious...what type of doctor are you?</p>
<p>I am a Rheumatologist.</p>